A councilman who served 40 years as a city patrolman and Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. butted heads so much Tuesday night that the bad blood has spilled over.

George Muschal said Wednesday that he would like to see Rivera removed as head of the department after the director delivered his public safety plan to council. The councilman also wants to install a police chief again.

“The man is incompetent,” Muschal said of the police director appointed in April 2012. “We need to go back to what works.”

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In 2000, James B. Golden was appointed the first civilian police director after voters decided through a referendum to replace the police chief position.

Former Mayor Douglas H. Palmer said reverting back to a police chief is a “terrible idea.” He said before a police director, citizens had a very strained relationship with police.

“The citizens decided they didn’t want that,” Palmer said of the civil service system that protected a chief’s tenure. “We need to really look at what this is about and it’s about a lack of resources.”

Before Rivera became police director, 105 police officers were laid off in 2011. The police director cited that at the council meeting as a huge blow to the department.

In December, Rivera disbanded the city’s two Tactical Anti-Crime units, used for defense against gang violence, drugs and street-level emergencies. The move has been highly criticized by citizens and police union representatives.

Rivera said the units were disbanded due to scheduling. He said the TAC units were given off Saturday night through Tuesday, which is when a majority of the shootings occur.

Rivera added the city would have to pay for overtime to schedule them on those days.

However, the president of Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 11 said Wednesday that Rivera delivered inaccuracies in his scheduling statements.

“In the 23 years I’ve been with the Trenton Police Department, the TAC has worked every Saturday night that I’m aware of,” union President George Dzurkoc said, adding the units also worked Tuesdays.

Rivera did not return a call for comment.

In place of the TAC units, Rivera opened two precincts. He said the change has led to more visibility on the streets and he feels that response times have improved.

So far this year, six people have been murdered in the city. On Wednesday, Trenton had its 43 gunshot victim.

Muschal said he wants city council to discuss removing Rivera at its next council meeting. The councilman said he would need five votes to remove him.

But a state spokeswoman for the said the city would also need to get approval from the New Jersey Division of Local Government Services for termination of any department head.

Contrary to the heated exchanges Tuesday night between Muschal and Rivera, the councilman said he supported the police director 100 percent when he took the position.

Muschal claims now that Rivera lacked transparency.

“You never called me for anything that was going on,” Muschal said.

Rivera struck back that he would rather call officials from the FBI, state police and U.S. Marshalls.

“You’re limited as far as management skills go,” Rivera said, noting Muschal never rose to the rank of a supervisor in the police department. “Someone who hasn’t had that experience, who stayed a patrolman level his entire career, sometimes I don’t think you get it.”

Another point of contention was Rivera’s residency.

Muschal alleges that Rivera lives in Hackensack, despite Rivera providing documentation that is on file that he leases a property in the city. It is a requirement for the police director to live in the city.

“While I did try to get your respect and your friendship, it switched around,” Rivera told Muschal. “You’re the one that kind of pushed me aside and went with the nonsense. You went with the old culture. You went the nonsense that keeps this department down and I’m not going to have that.”

Rivera concluded his presentation by stating the culture within the department needs to change and the current culture is only interested in the “status quo.”

He was interrupted by Council President Phyllis Holly-Ward, who said “That is not the plan.”

“It is the plan,” he argued. “We cannot move the plan forward until the culture is fixed.”

Shortly after, Holly-Ward finally put a kibosh on the more than two-hour presentation.

Rivera’s final statement to council: “And I’m going to take that 10 minute ride to my house now, not an hour.”